Haha, you guessed it. I have a 2017 Audi A6.
Eh, I'll bite...
The ECU in your car should be a SIMOS 18.1. When it comes to "cheap tools," your options are somewhat limited. I believe you can WRITE a "virtual read," file also known as VR, using a cloned Kess tool (priced between $80 and $100). However, it will not read the file from the ECU directly. Additionally, writing through the port without a recovery option is potentially risky. If you brick your ECU, you'll find yourself in a difficult situation without a way to recover it. Having a full bench/bootmode backup would enable recovery, but unfortunately, no affordable bench tools are available. The most budget-friendly tool for reading and writing this ECU on the bench would be the KT200 / Fox Flash (costing around $600), which is also a clone tool, and meaning no factory support. If you rely solely on port flashing and your ECU becomes bricked, you'll likely need to urgently seek someone who can provide a solution, so keep this in mind $$$.
Your best option for data logging would be to use VehiCAL, but it requires a subscription and the purchase of a J2543 cable. Tuning will require editing software. I shared some SIMOS definition files around Christmas last year, but you would need a copy of WinOLS to use them. Also, it's worth noting that the exact software version may not be available, so you may need to compare a defined version with yours and transfer the maps accordingly. WinOLS costs $1100 USD for a legitimate version, but cracked versions are available, primarily versions 1.5, 1.7, 2.23, version 4.5, and version 4.7. Versions 1.5 and 1.7 are quite old but still have useful checksum modules like ME7 ST10. However, they only work on 32-bit operating systems, or at least, in the past, I've had no success running them on a 64-bit OS. They work best within a virtual machine or on a Windows XP machine. Version 2.23 can be installed natively on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems, and I must admit that before I purchased the legitimate version of OLS, this was my go-to version. It does have some bugs, especially if you select too many options too quickly. Occasionally, although very rarely, it may crash, so it's essential to save your work as you go. Versions 4.5 and 4.7 can be installed natively but require changing the date before running to backdate the software to a point when it was still valid. Some of the newer cracks automatically adjust the system date on launch, but this can disrupt web certificates, making internet browsing virtually impossible without exiting the software. Versions 4.5 and 4.7 also exist in a virtual machine (VM), but unfortunately, they are painfully slow. Furthermore, the VM versions can only be launched a limited number of times before they cease to work. A workaround is to leave the VM in a suspended state and keep OLS open the entire time.
The only other option for tuning yourself is to use online editors like StageX or Speed Weaver. I had subscriptions to both; however, I greatly prefer StageX over SW and now exclusively use StageX. They do have their downsides, though. For instance, StageX does not use map acronyms, and it can be somewhat slow. However, since version 2 was released, it has improved significantly.
If you'd prefer not to invest in a tool costing over $600 to flash your car and would like the peace of mind of having a recovery option, you can send me the ECU from your car, and I can perform a full read. This way, even if you happen to brick your ECU by chance, it can still be recovered. Also, if you chose to go down this rabbit hole, you can use Kess and it can ID ecu and this information can be used to find a VR. If you get this far I'll check my resources and if I have it I'll post it up here on the forum. Also, if you have a Hp Tuners file I can extract the cal out of their archive.
Someone also made a open source flasher
https://github.com/bri3d/VW_Flash/releasesPersonally I have not looked into this at all, but I do think a dev thread exists on the form some place you should be able to find easy.
Best of luck.
